Marina Penalva

Born in 1980 into an Irish-Spanish family. Raised speaking English, Catalan and Spanish, I was adopted by Barcelona in 1998, when I began my BA degree in Audiovisual Communication in the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. I graduated five years later, having lived and studied also in Munich and Copenhagen.

I joined Pontas as an intern in 2000 and worked alongside Anna Soler-Pont for seven years, getting to know the publishing industry from a privileged position. I then joined the publishing house Ara Llibres, first as a fiction editor, and later as head of the retail book division, which included 60 titles a year by Catalan and foreign authors. Some of the authors which I worked with are Toni Morrison, Camila Läckberg, Khaled Hosseini, Colm Tóibín, Fred Vargas, Jhumpa Lahiri or Michael Chabon, among many others. I walked the main trade fairs for ten years and participated in different international Fellowship programs. I read Catalan, Spanish, English, French, and understand German and Swedish.

Traveling is my Achilles heel, and I have trampled the world as far as my budget and curiosity have gone. I am interested in Central Asia and its history, in the Arab world and in off the radar destinations. I also enjoy trekking, and no trip goes by without some blisters. I live in Barcelona because everything I like, everything I need and everything I want, is here. My most cherished possession is my travel literature collection and I have recently started taking cooking lessons, a long-due resolution.

Beatriz Chamussy

I was born in 1980 into a French-Mexican family and I have been exposed to cultural diversity and international exchanges my whole life. In 2003 I graduated from a bachelor’s degree in Communications in Mexico and since then I have combined my career with photography, graphic design and drawing, living nomadically in between Mexico, France, USA, India, and Spain. In the past years I have worked for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), for Coffee Kids, an international non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for coffee farming communities, and early in my career I worked in New York for a non-profit human rights organization promoting cultural activities of Latino immigrants. I see my life as a continuous exploration, photography and drawing have trained me to be awake and to appreciate that reality keeps in secret a playful and vibrant dimension. In 2010 my desire for ongoing learning has brought me to beautiful Barcelona to study a Master in Art therapy at Universidad Pompeu Fabra. Since June 2012 I had the wonderful opportunity to join Pontas team where I am thrilled witnessing stories from all around the world through the magic of books and films.

Sara Vilar

Born in 1990 in Granollers (Barcelona). As a child I adored the aroma of the town chemist's and used to say I would become a pharmacist. Some years later I changed my mind and said <<a biologist>>, instead of a pharmacist. As a teenager I realized the science I was really fond of was physics. However, I didn't want to renounce to my passion for language, books and human thought and convinced myself to study philosophy at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, a subject that fascinated me, continues to do so and to which I really feel indebted to. Currently I am taking a Masters Degree in Publishing at the IDEC - Universitat Pompeu Fabra. My internship at Pontas makes me feel fortunate, as I know that I am going to learn a lot about the publishing sector and will be able to participate from an exceptional position.

Anna Soler-Pont

Born in 1968 in Barcelona, I studied Arabic Language and Culture at the University of Barcelona while I worked in many jobs, but mainly in publishing, from proof-reading to translation and editing. I never thought a month in Cairo(October 1991) would be so important in my life: I met my hero of the time Naguib Mahfouz, as well as several women authors published in Egypt who asked me to take their novels to Europe and try to get them translated....Back in Spain I discovered literary agents existed, acting as the links between authors and publishers, and with the potential to be bridges between cultures too, and thus I decided to print my business card. I attended the Salon du Livre Euro-Arabe in Paris(May 1992), the International Feminist Book Fair in Amsterdam(June 1992) and began a long journey by car from Barcelona to New Delhi, crossing Turkey and Kurdistan, Iran and Pakistan, visiting publishers and writers all the way to India!! I attended the Frankfurt Book Fair for the first time in October 1992, where, without any kind of appointment, I began to learn all about the rights business, attempting to sell the novels of unknown women writers from Africa and Asia. Now the agency is a reality, and together with a great team, we represent a good selection of great international authors and are also the bridge between literature and films.

Ricard Domingo

Born in Barcelona in 1950. After my senior year in East High School (Lincoln, Nebraska) I attended the University in Barcelona where I took a degree in History. I began to work in publishing in 1970 (translator, illustrator, editor); I was editorial director in Difusora Internacional and in Planeta-DeAgostini; managing director in Agrupación Editorial, a company especialized in the creation of Planeta’s encyclopedia and reference books; and general manager in GeoPlaneta, a content company oriented to travel and mapping products to be sold through books, a web site and a thematical television channel. After 18 years working in the Planeta Group I spent some months travelling around Africa and in 2002 I joined Pontas. Between 2004 and 2008 I was the general director of BarcelonaTV, the local public channel, and of the on-line newspaper Diari de Barcelona: a very rewarding professional experience. In 2009 I joined again Pontas to develop and produce audiovisual formats based in the talent managed by the agency. Following my track through publishing, journalism and management I focus now on audiovisual production.

Marc de Gouvenain

I was born in Paris in 1947. Before working as an editor for the French publishing company Actes Sud and becoming an author of different literary genres, I lived and worked some years as a teacher in Sweden, Ethiopia and Morocco. Since 1969 I’ve translated more than seventy novels from Swedish into French (also some from Norwegian), by authors like P.O. Enquist, Göran Tunström, Torgny Lindgren, Lars Gustafsson and Stieg Larsson, amongst others. I alternated translations and publishing with activities as a cultural travels' guide in Yemen, Ethiopia, Mongolia and the Solomon Islands, amongst other destinations. Travelling and reading have always been my two great passions.

For forty years I’ve been working with Swedish titles for the French book market and I had the privilege to be one of the first ones to read the manuscript for the Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson: I bought the rights immediately for Actes Sud and I myself translated the three volumes from Swedish into French… Everything that has happened since then has been one of the most exciting adventures in my life. In 2009 I started a new career as an agent for Pontas to represent authors from Scandinavia and the Pacific all over the world, both for publishing and for film rights. And to continue exploring and promoting the literary voices yet to be discovered!

Patricia Sánchez

I was born in Barcelona in 1971. I got my Degree in English Philology at the Universitat de Barcelona. In 1993 I started working at Tusquets Editores, were I had the privilege to be raised as a professional in publishing, guided by two first-class masters, Antonio López de Lamadrid and Beatriz de Moura; I worked at the Rights and Permissions Department during ten years, first in the acquisition of rights, and later on taking charge of the foreign rights sales of the Spanish language authors. I made a maternal parenthesis to take care of my daughter and son. I returned to publishing as Assistant Editorial Director of the imprints Paidos and Oniro, part of the Planeta Group, within the team created by Claudia Casanova. I dealt with the cession of foreign rights again at Sandra Bruna literary agency during one year. I’m joining the Pontas team in September 2011, where I keep working in what I like most, a job one could describe as “taylor of stories” for foreign publishers, finding for each of them the book that looks nicer in their catalogue, the one that fits better with their measurements, taking into account the season’s trends and fashion, but without forgetting their own personal taste and, of course, their particular charms. 

Rosa Rubio

I was born in 1959 in Bueña (Teruel) and I live in Barcelona since 1992, although I can feel at home in many other places. Graduated on Basic General Education from the Escuela Universitaria de Zaragoza (even if I never worked as a teacher) and MBA in Business Direction and Organization from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, I also studied Psychology at the Universidad de Salamanca. My professional trajectory in the accountancy field has taken me to work in different companies and in the public administration before I joined the Pontas team in 2009 as the responsible for the accountancy and financial area. What motivates me the most is to learn and I keep training and studying in my professional field of accountancy and economical analysis as well as in other fields of my interest (management of the time, personal growth, positive thinking…). Since 2002 I travel regularly to India, where I’m involved as a volunteer in a NGO.

Sílvia Farriol

I was born in Barcelona in 1947. My sign is Taurus. Not that I believe in astrology but it is a curious system of trying to know the human soul, and also the ancients followed the stars affairs very carefully. As an architect by profession, I have always looked beyond the architecture, to the stars, and reading has allowed me to always go further through novels (as a child I wrote long lists I wanted to get for my birthday, especially Jules Verne), philosophy (we never know enough), the memoirs, history and poetry. I begin a new stage in my life at the Pontas agency working near the French publishers, because thanks to my knowledge of French (in my time this was the only language we could learn and those who went to the British Institute were seen as Martians) and the Francophilia in Catalonia at the time of the dictatorship, we approached the language of culture through the French classics (and songs). I look forward to a long and fruitful collaboration with my friends at Pontas.

Antoni Roig

I was born in Barcelona in 1971. I studiedBusiness Studies at the University Pompeu Fabra and a Masters in Financial Management at the same university. I have always worked in administrative and accounting departments in companies of different sectors. In late 2012 I joined the Pontas team in the accounting departmentand this gave me the opportunity to meet a new and interesting field for my professional development.
Traveling is one of my passions and I still have many places to visit. My dream is to discover Australia and get lost in Polynesia. To enjoy Barcelona is another of my passions, especially near the sea. As well as to escape to the Costa Brava.